#Conflict Management

Conflict is a natural part of work on a team. It can arise from personality differences, differences in opinion, or differences in work style.

There are seven main sources of potential conflict on a team:

1. Work Scope: Differences of opinion on how the work should be done, how much should be done, or the appropriate level of quality.
2. Resource Assignments: The particular individuals assigned to work on certain tasks, or the quantity of resources assigned to certain tasks.
3. Schedule: The sequence in which the work should be completed, or about how long the work should take.
4. Cost: How much the work should cost (n/a for this course).
5. Priorities: People being assigned multiple conflicting tasks, or when various people need to use a limited resource at the same time.
6. Organizational: Disagreement over the need for certain procedures, or ambiguous communication, or failure to make timely decisions.
7. Stakeholder: Issues with certain stakeholders e.g. disagrement with the instructor.
8. Personal: Differences in individual values and attitudes on the team.

Conflict can be beneficial to a team, as it can lead to better decision-making and more creative solutions. However, if not managed properly, it can also lead to stress and demotivation.

There are five main approaches to handling conflict:

1. Avoiding or Withdrawing. Individuals in conflict retreat from the situation in order to avoid an actual or potential disagreement. This approach can cause the conflict to fester and then escalate at a later time.
2. Competing or Forcing. In this approach, conflict is viewed as a win–lose situation in which the value placed on winning the conflict is higher than the value placed on the relationship between the individuals. This approach to handling conflict can result in resentment and deterioration of the work climate.
3. Accommodating or Smoothing. This approach emphasizes finding areas of agreement within the conflict and minimizes addressing differences. Topics that may cause hurt feelings are not discussed. Although this approach may make a conflict situation livable, it does not resolve the issue.
4. Compromising. Team members search for an intermediate position. The solution may not be the optimal one.
5. Collaborating, Confronting, or Problem Solving. Team members confront the issue directly, with a constructive attitude, and look for a win–win outcome. They place high value on both the outcome and the relationship between the individuals. For this approach to work, it is necessary to have a healthy project environment.

In a particular conflict situation, you will tend to have a preference for one style over the others depending on the dynamic of the team and your personality.

By understanding the consequences and impact of each of the styles, we can make more informed and productive decisions about how to approach a conflict situation.

These strategies differ along two dimensions (how much it values the individual need vs. how much it values collective need):

• Cooperation scale: value placed on maintaining relationships
• Assertiveness scale: value placed on addressing individual goals or concerns

In a team environment, we recommend team-friendly stragies: accommodating, compromising or collaborating. This is in-part why we enforce regular team meetings, and decision-making by consensus; it helps ensure that everyone's opinion is considered and that decisions are made in a way that is fair to everyone.

The end goal of a conflict resolution process is to explore different options and comes up with the best (or mutually acceptable) idea.

Members should view conflicts within the organization as conflicts between allies, not opponents. The goal is for the team to win, not for one person to win over another.